Autonomous vehicles, such as vehicles that do not require a human driver, can be used to aid in the transport of passengers or items from one location to another. Such vehicles may operate in a fully autonomous mode where passengers may provide some initial input, such as a pickup or destination location, and the vehicle maneuvers itself to that location.
When a person (or user) wants to be physically transported between two locations via a vehicle, they may use any number of taxi services. To date, these services typically involve a human driver who is given dispatch instructions to a location to pick up the user, or rather, the passenger. Typically, the driver is able to communicate by waving down the passenger or speaking to them. This may not always be the case for an autonomous vehicle with an assigned passenger.
These problems may be compounded for blind passengers or passengers with visual impairments as they may not be able to recognize an assigned vehicle by looking at the vehicle. In addition, such passengers may not be able to identify a safe route from where they are waiting to where the vehicle has stopped to pick up the passenger. At the same time, when picking up a passenger, the vehicle may stop on the wrong side of the street, down the street, or around the corner. Thus, visually impaired passengers may not be aware of their actual location in relation to the destination (or an entrance at the destination). Moreover, crossing the street or walking through a parking lot to get to the vehicle or a destination may therefore be especially inconvenient and dangerous for these passengers.